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A number of torrent sites have moved to ban IP addresses, which they believe to be from VPNs, from accessing their sites.

Torrent Freak reports that a couple of unnamed torrent sites have opted for banning VPNs after discovering that anti-piracy bodies have used such services to hunt down infringing content and issue DMCA notices.

Torrent Freak had discovered it was unable to access certain sites while connected to a VPN but when disconnected, things worked just fine. They contact site owners for an explanation.

He said that if they see a large swathe of similar IP addresses hitting their website, it tends to set off some alarm bells.

“If you see 15,000 requests from the same IP address after integrity checks on the IP’s browsers for the day, you can safely assume its [sic] a [DMCA] bot,” the site owner said.

Often these groups will use commercial or free VPN services, said another source.

“They mostly use rented dedicated servers. But sometimes I’ve even caught them using Hola VPN,” they said.

The owners of the torrent sites refused to go into too much detail about how their banning works beyond that.

Have you had any issues accessing any sites of late while connected to a VPN? Let us know what sites they are and the VPN you’re using in the comments section below.